JVM was a “mortgage broker” until 2014. Instead of underwriting and funding loans in-house like we do now (as part of a “mortgage bank”), we brokered our loans through various wholesale lenders or external mortgage banks. We originated and packaged the loans up front, but we shipped them off to be underwritten elsewhere.

We stuck with the channel for a long time b/c we loved the flexibility of being able to access multiple lenders and loan programs, and b/c we were extremely good at navigating the channel.

We were forced to leave the channel for two reasons: (1) We could not control the speed of our transactions once we shipped files off for underwriting; and (2) the appraisal quality was very poor, and our transactions blew up all too often b/c of it.

The huge mortgage banks we brokered to forced us to use national Appraisal Management Companies that randomly assigned appraisals to appraisers without regard to skill, or worse, local knowledge.

I bring this up b/c we received two transactions in recent days that blew up at other lenders b/c of appraisal issues. One was at Chase and the other at Quicken.

Our mortgage bank has its own internal Appraisal Management Company that is staffed entirely by local, skilled and very smart appraisers of our choosing. The importance of this can never be overstated.

Our appraisals are not only much higher quality now but we also get them back within 5 days from the receipt of contract. Our appraisers are a key factor behind our ability to consistently perform the way we do.

Our popular blog is written daily by JVM's founder, Jay Voorhees. The posts are always short and sweet, with an interest rate update and industry or business insights. Our blog is for general educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as advertising or relied upon as legal advice.

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